I'm a monster in Demon King's Castle

The first to encounter the petrifying rays were, of course, the knights with their light shields raised.

They had already been nearly wiped out by Oogie Boogie, with their armor heavily damaged. So, when they discovered that the light shields couldn't block the petrifying rays and their skin began to take on a stone hue, they immediately stopped sharing the burden.

The knights' movements became disjointed and rusty, and even after actively scattering all their armor and equipment, they couldn't find an escape route…

The knights unwillingly turned into stone statues.

Then came the thieves and hunters.

They hadn't expected a demon to be hiding in the darkness, launching a fatal blow only after Oogie Boogie's demise…

The thieves blurred their bodies, attempting to conceal themselves, while the hunters used their accumulated herbs to resist the power of the petrifying rays.

However, under the gaze of countless Eyes of Aberration, their resistance was futile.

Soon, surprised faces solidified into stone statues, frozen in the deepest part of the Great Hollow, becoming a collection of silent artworks.

Li Yue hadn't expected to resolve the Hunter Kingdom's hero array without even using the lava right hand from the underground.

Clearly, after their battle with Beelzebub and Oogie Boogie, they were already exhausted and hadn't had time to recover before being targeted by the Eyes of Aberration, leaving them powerless to resist.

Amidst the overwhelming petrifying rays, Li Yue used the Binding Thread to pull Rain Man and Soya aside, dragging them into the underground.

During the pull, Rain Man and Soya naturally struggled, but the protracted battle had already drained their stamina. Unlike Hunterlaar, they didn't have the ability to endure and absorb materials to recover.

And so, they were gradually tightened by the Binding Thread, unable to move.

Until the octopus tentacles enveloped them, absorbing the falling petrifying rays and also Hannibal, the demon who had previously been driven away by Hunterlaar.

【Rain… Light Rain…】

【What the hell is this demon thinking…】

Rain Man and Soya's thoughts were also very chaotic.

Under the barrage of petrifying rays, the only one still capable of action was, of course, Hunterlaar.

Enduring the erosion of the petrifying rays, Hunterlaar didn't rush to dodge. Instead, he quickly scanned his surroundings with his hawk eyes, firstly to find a way out, and secondly to see if there was any possibility of counterattack.

"So it's you…" Hunterlaar recognized Hannibal at a glance.

"No, if you're here, then who's in the underground city?" Hunterlaar frowned, looking at Budibog on the map.

"Guess?" Li Yue sensed the rapid depletion of magic power in the Library, thinking how fortunate it was that he hadn't tried to deceive Oogie Boogie earlier, or he would have been exposed now.

Moreover, Li Yue had learned his lesson this time, not swimming out of the ground and not getting close to Hunterlaar, to avoid being attacked by phantom arrows or accidentally triggering the hunter's traps.

【He's not coming to attack me… Could it be that this isn't his true body? This enemy is a fake…】

Hunterlaar fully trusted his map—after all, when facing Oogie Boogie, he had relied on this map to determine that Oogie Boogie's true body was still in the Holy City.

Li Yue was naturally happy for Hunterlaar to think that way.

In reality, the reason Li Yue didn't attack wasn't unwillingness, but because the arena was filled with petrifying rays. Although they couldn't harm him, controlling them to avoid the Binding Thread, which was also a sensory object, would be quite taxing, so he simply didn't try.

"Was that you just now too?" Hunterlaar recalled the guidance he had heard in his mind when facing Oogie Boogie.

"Yes, it was me. Long time no see, how are you?" Li Yue waved his tentacles, greeting Hunterlaar.

"Haha, I obtained the only prey and am about to advance to a Rank 9 Hunter King, how could I be bad?" Hunterlaar moved as usual, his face faintly tinged with stone, yet he still maintained his strong fighting spirit and patience.

"Go ahead and advance, I'll watch you advance, and clear the stage for you."

Li Yue adjusted the angle of the Eyes of Aberration, completely covering Hunterlaar like a spotlight.

"You have a grudge against Oogie Boogie? You only ran away then because you were afraid I wouldn't follow your plan to break through the arena?" Hunterlaar quickly understood what had just happened. "Now that your goal is achieved, you want to get rid of me…"

As the petrifying rays focused, the siege beast relics around Hunterlaar were the first to be petrified, and the insect eggs stopped hatching, eventually being completely destroyed.

But he himself showed no sign of fleeing.

"Truly clever."

While observing Hunterlaar, Li Yue also noticed that even when hit by the petrifying rays, the candlestick behind him was not affected at all, as if it didn't exist in this space.

But Hunterlaar didn't think about escaping in the direction of the candlestick either, instead staring intently at the ground that had already been coated with a layer of stone skin, subconsciously avoiding that abnormal candlestick.

"It's really laughable, I was actually used by you?" Hunterlaar suddenly laughed after figuring out Li Yue's motives.

"Don't be discouraged, you won't be the last one," Li Yue comforted telepathically.

"It doesn't matter, you're on my map, you can't escape, you will also be one of my prey…" Hunterlaar gritted his teeth, his movements suddenly becoming fluid.

"Why would I escape? You're about to die…" Li Yue decided to kill Hunterlaar on the spot, not giving him a chance to go to the Library and cause damage.

With the petrifying rays from above.

"Heh, you think you can hunt me just because your main body is hiding in the underground city?" Hunterlaar stroked his mustache. "Hmm? You're a Brain Spirit?"

Li Yue's previous communication had all been through telepathy, and he no longer deliberately concealed his identity. The Bone Sword was already eager to move, waiting for the first round of petrifying rays to end before engaging him in melee combat.

It was a good opportunity to try out the newly developed Birdcage and Thread Avatar…

"Your pituitary gland is mine!"

Hunterlaar swiped his finger across the map, and his entire body suddenly withdrew from the petrifying rays, leaving only thousands of petrified flies in mid-air.

The flies fell to the ground and shattered, Hunterlaar's trail vanished, and the direction of his body's dispersal was precisely the underground city where Budibog was located!

"Escaped?" Li Yue hadn't expected Hunterlaar to escape so decisively.

What kind of magic was that just now?

Li Yue suddenly realized that trapping and killing this Rank 8 hunter was not as simple as he had imagined.

How long could Budibog hold out?

Could the demons at the armory kill Hunterlaar?

Thinking of the flies constantly hatching from Hunterlaar's severed limbs, as well as his ability to endure and convert materials into combat power… Li Yue's mind tightened, and he suddenly felt a strong sense of crisis.

What if Hunterlaar went back to heal first, and then came back to hunt after he recovered?

Or if he didn't hesitate to expend egg pods and completed his advancement first, then the Library would be facing not a Rank 8 hunter, but a Rank 9 Hunter King…

Compared to that, the joy of breaking through the arena was no longer so delicious.

Fortunately, there was still a way to remedy the situation.

Without bothering to study the candlestick embedded in the wall, and without time to pay attention to Rain Man and Soya who were buried in the ground, Li Yue swallowed the Eyes of Aberration and the lava right hand in the soil like a whale, and quickly rushed back to the Library.

On the way, Li Yue locked onto the tile position of the underground city and transmitted his thoughts.

Budibog's brain grooves heated up, and he came out of his hidden state, only to see Li Yue.

"Return to the Library…"

Li Yue realized that Budibog was currently the only opportunity to lure Hunterlaar over.

Otherwise, this hunter would become a sword hanging over their heads, requiring constant vigilance.

Budibog of course unconditionally followed Li Yue's request, but just as it was about to crawl out of the abandoned furnace, countless phantom arrows appeared in front of it.